Vehicle & Technical > Discovery

wading and churning

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SnakeLogic:
How long (roughly) can one ford deep water (over the wheels) with a regular (not electric aftermarket) fan?  I realize that while doing so, I'm churning water and spraying everything in my engine compartment, but I don't think that an electric fan is a reliable upgrade (and in any case, I'm not going to buy one).

As always, thanks for the advice.

Budgie:
The mechanical fans are on a viscous coupling and will be slowed by the water resistance. But this shouldn't effect the engine that much and driven correctly, using a bow wave, the engine compartment should be relitively free of water until you start going deeper.

With a diesel, the water churned up by the fan will have little effect but with a petrol you will have to make sure the electrics are waterproofed otherwise the engine may cut out in the water.

The electric fan is actually a good convertion as you can have it on an automatic switch for normal driving and an on/off switch for wading so you can switch it off. Plus it will give you a little extra engine power as the engine isn't driving it and it only comes on when needed.

When wading you're not that worried about engine cooling as the water you're going through will do some of that for you.
As for time in the water, well thats up to you, where you are and how far you have to go. If the water is deep enough to provide the engine cooling around the radiator and bottom of the block then who long a piece of string?

A few things to watch out for though:
Make sure you know exactly how deep it is and where the underwater obstructions are.
If it's too deep and too fast flowing then your Disco will float, for a while, and can be swept down stream!!
If the water is muddy then wash out your radiator asap, with a hose rather than a pressure washer as you want some radiator left!
Make sure all your breather pipes are clear before you go into the water and with a TDi then an added breather on the timing cover is advisable.

SnakeLogic:
The breather on the timing cover is something I must drill and tap myself?

Budgie:
Yep.

I used a brake bleed nipple.  :wink:
Remove the cover plate for the injector pump timing, 3 screws.
Drill & tap the cover plate, making sure the hole is not going to get in the way of the gear inside.
Screw the bleed nipple into the hole and trim off the amount that stick through on the inside of the plate.
Then get a length of tube that's a tight fit onto the nipple, heat the tube in hot water and push it over the nipple.
Then run the tube to the rest of the breather tubes.  :wink:

Failing that, you can get a kit from Mantec which includes a replacement cover plate for the timing cover breather.

floyd fan:
Erm.... this may sound dumb, but I thought the timing cover was cam belt cover and you used the hole at the bottom.

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